Kigali, Rwanda, September 11, 2018—The
World Bank Group today launched the Development Finance Forum in Kigali,
Rwanda, for global public and private sector leaders to explore and demonstrate
strategies to boost private sector investment in East Africa’s priority
sectors, notably, housing, agriculture and tourism. Highlighting the efforts
by the World Bank Group to mobilize private investment, the forum hosted
the signing of an IFC agreement that envisions developing affordable housing
in Rwanda with Chinese construction giant Broad Homes Industrial International.
The proposed financing plans to use the recently created International
Development Association’s (IDA) Private Sector Window to mitigate risk
and encourage commercial investment in the housing sector.

The two-day Development Finance Forum was
inaugurated by President Paul Kagame, who
spoke about Rwanda’s efforts to increase private investment by creating
a business enabling environment, where companies can thrive and contribute
to local economic growth. This year’s forum marks the fourth edition of
the event, and was attended by more than 300 participants, including representatives
of governments, and leading companies.

The memorandum of understanding
signed today demonstrates a new World Bank Group approach to encouraging
investment in Africa. Broad Homes envisions partnering with IFC, the Rwanda
Social Security Board, the Development Bank of Rwanda, and BSMART Technology
– a leading research, development and design firm – to develop over 10,000
housing units in the Kinyinya district of Kigali. The project, which consists
of residential and commercial units, would be expected to benefit nearly
50,000 members of the Kinyinya community. The total project cost
is estimated to be over $200 million.

Karin Finkelston, IFC’s Vice
President for Partnerships, Communication and Outreach said, “The private
sector can play a central role in addressing housing shortages in Africa’s
growing towns and cities. IFC supports projects that mobilize global expertise
in housing construction and design, to increase the supply of high quality,
affordable homes in Africa. Our partnership with Broad Homes plans to draw
on the IDA Private Sector Window, a tool that enables us to hasten private
sector solutions by addressing commercial constraints.”

Over the past two years, the World Bank Group
has developed several innovative products to crowd-in private finance for
development. In December 2016, the World Bank Group’s IDA completed a
record $75 billion replenishment, a pivotal step in the movement to end
extreme poverty. $45 billion of this is targeted to Africa.

A groundbreaking new initiative under IDA18
is the new $2.5 billion Private Sector Window (PSW)—a joint initiative
of IDA, IFC, and MIGA—to mobilize private sector investments with strong
development impact in the most challenging areas: those countries eligible
for IDA support and post-conflict environments.

“The Development Finance Forum is an action
driven gathering to facilitate a dramatic scale up of private investment
in Africa”, said Axel van Trotsenburg, World Bank Development Finance
Vice-President. “Increase private investment is a must to cratering jobs
in Africa. The World Bank Group is fully committed to support this effort
to this end and is going to invest over 50 billion dollars to African development
within a three-year period” he added.

Over the past decade, IDA, IFC, and MIGA
have together supported more than $100 billion in private sector investment
in IDA countries to create an enabling environment, make complementary
investments, provide guarantees, and directly invest in the private sector.

"African governments have ambitious
plans for drawing in private sector investment," said Vijay Iyer,
Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of MIGA. "We are committed
to supporting this aspiration by helping reduce risk for foreign investors
and lenders. The Development Finance Forum provides us with a platform
to bring together business, government and development partners to find
solutions for scaling up quality private investment in Africa."

The Development Finance Forum will help create
a pipeline of projects and programs by offering a pre-investment platformfor the public and private sectors to explore new markets and opportunities.